The ELISA analysis results in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) seed health testing for Tobacco mosaic virus

Abstract

Seed health testing is an important component in disease management for quarantine and phytosanitary certification. The time of seed sampling is one of the most important factors to obtaining accurate seed health test results. Most seed health tests utilize qualitative data based on the presence or absence of the pathogen in the test sample, with the lot being rejected if the pathogen is detected in the sample and accepted if the sample is negative. Because of the low frequencies with which many important seed-borne pathogens occur in seed and the low to very low seed contamination/infection thresholds for economic loss or the initiation of an epidemic, sampling for seed health testing may appear to present special problems. Four sets of experiments were done to determine whether Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) transmits through contaminated tomato seeds and to examine whether the plant growth stage affects the ability of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based seed health test to detect TMV in Laboratory of Antalya Agricultural Quarantine Service in 2008. The plant growth stages (days after sowing) at the time of the DAS-ELISA analysis significantly affected the absorbance values obtained in the ELISA test of the tomato lots. However, there were no significant differences in absorbance between the two seed lots.